A number of businesses are cutting ties with the National Rifle Association in the days following the Parkland school shooting. The First National Bank of Omaha announced that it will no longer offer an NRA-branded Visa card to customers. After customer feedback, the bank decided to cut ties. In another blow to the NRA, Enterprises Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise, Alamo, and National car rental brands, said it will no longer work with the organization. That change is expected to take place at the end of next month.
Cheddar speaks with David Hogg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, about the tragic shooting in Parkland and the #NeverAgain movement. Hogg says he is disappointed with President Trump's reaction to the shooting and does not believe in arming teachers. Hogg believes in the second amendment but says it needs to be limited. In the aftermath of the shooting, a number of conspiracy theorists called students, including Hogg, "crisis actors." Since he was attacked online, Hogg says his Twitter following has quadrupled and it's only helped him push the #NeverAgain movement forward.
In other news, General Mills is buying natural pet food maker Blue Buffalo for $8 billion in cash. Shares of Blue Buffalo surged more than 15% on the news. This marks the first time General Mills has broken into the pet food industry. The deal is expected to be finalized at the end of this year.
And Chris Tung, Chief Marketing Officer at Alibaba, discusses the company's first official partnership with the International Olympic Committee. This year, Alibaba is the exclusive worldwide partner of the Olympic Games for cloud computing and e-commerce. Tung says it's been a "fantastic" first experience for Alibaba at the Olympics. The Chinese tech giant has been able to showcase its cloud computing power at the games.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
